RFCS-Projekt GREENEAF2

Biochar for a sustainable EAF steel production

The pre­vious GREENEAF pro­ject (RFSR-CT-2009–00004) has demons­tra­ted the fea­si­bi­li­ty of uti­liza­ti­on of char, from bio­mass, as sub­sti­tu­te of coal into the EAF. The pre­sent pro­ject objec­ti­ve was to make the char use a stan­dard practice.
The­r­e­fo­re, the fol­lo­wing acti­vi­ties have been car­ri­ed out:

  • char labo­ra­to­ry cha­rac­te­riza­ti­ons to check the capa­bi­li­ty of the mate­ri­al to replace coal in indus­tri­al tri­als, both for char­ging and injec­tion procedures,
  • iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on of most sui­ta­ble injec­tions systems
  • ana­ly­sis of EAF beha­viour in case of char and bio­mass use during long-time indus­tri­al trials
  • Life Cycle Assess­ment stu­dy, as regard to inven­to­ry issues.

Indus­tri­al tri­als of EAF char­ging con­firm­ed the fea­si­bi­li­ty of coal sub­sti­tu­ti­on and out­lined the rele­vant pro­cess aspects: bas­ket pre­pa­ra­ti­on to avo­id mate­ri­al bur­ning befo­re dis­so­lu­ti­on into mol­ten steel and EAF post com­bus­ti­on to reco­very the ener­gy con­tent of the char vola­ti­le matter.
In case of injec­tion tri­als, a wide ran­ge of pos­si­bi­li­ties has been exploi­ted: biochar, biochar mixed with fos­sil coal and vir­gin ligneous bio­mass. The best slag foa­ming, com­pa­ra­ble with the pul­ve­ri­sed fos­sil coal injec­tion has been obtai­ned with vir­gin biomass.
Out­lined ener­gy saving with EAF equip­ped for post com­bus­ti­on and tail­o­red char pro­duc­tion form low gra­de bio­mass show­ed that char uti­liza­ti­on is eco­no­mic­al­ly sustainable.

Publications

Kal­de, A.; Demus, T.; Ech­ter­hof, T.; Pfei­fer, H.: Deter­mi­ning the Reac­ti­vi­ty of Biochar-Agglo­me­ra­tes to Replace Fos­sil Coal in Elec­tric Arc Fur­nace Steel­ma­king, EUBCE 2015 – 23rd Euro­pean Bio­mass Con­fe­rence and Exhi­bi­ti­on, 01. – 05. Juni 2015, Wien, Österreich

Will­ms, T.; Kal­de, A.; Demus, T.; Ech­ter­hof, T.; Pfei­fer, H.: Indus­tri­el­ler Ein­satz von Bio­mas­se in der Elek­tro­stahl­er­zeu­gung, DGMK-Fach­be­reichs­ta­gung: Kon­ver­si­on von Bio­mas­sen und Koh­len, 9.–11. Mai 2016, Roten­burg a.d. Ful­da, DGMK-Tagungs­be­richt 2016–2, pp. 95–102

Ech­ter­hof, T.; Demus, T.; Pfei­fer, H.; Schlin­ge, L.; Schlie­pha­ke, H.: Inves­ti­ga­ti­on of palm ker­nel shells as a sub­sti­tu­te for fos­sil car­bons in a 140 t DC Elec­tric Arc Fur­nace, 11th Euro­pean Elec­tric Steel­ma­king Con­fe­rence & Expo, 25.–27. Mai 2016, Vene­dig, Italien

Ech­ter­hof, T.; Demus, T.; Schlin­ge, L.; Schlie­pha­ke, H.; Pfei­fer, H.: Use of palm ker­nel shells as a sub­sti­tu­te for char­ge coal in a 140 t DC Elec­tric Arc Fur­nace, SCANMET V – 5th Inter­na­tio­nal Con­fe­rence on Pro­cess Deve­lo­p­ment in Iron and Steel­ma­king, 12.–15. Juni 2016, Lulea, Sweden

Demus, T.; Rei­chel, T.; Schul­ten, M.; Ech­ter­hof, T.; Pfei­fer, H.: Incre­asing the sus­taina­bi­li­ty of steel pro­duc­tion in the elec­tric arc fur­nace by sub­sti­tu­ting fos­sil coal with biochar agglo­me­ra­tes, Iron­ma­king & Steel­ma­king, 43 (2016), Nr. 8, pp. 564–570

Mei­er, T.; Hay, T.; Ech­ter­hof, T.; Pfei­fer, H.; Rekers­drees, T.; Schlin­ge, L.; Els­ab­agh, S.; Schlie­pha­ke, H.: Pro­cess Mode­ling and Simu­la­ti­on of Biochar Usa­ge in an Elec­tric Arc Fur­nace as a Sub­sti­tu­te for Fos­sil Coal, steel rese­arch inter­na­tio­nal, 88 (2017), Nr. 9, 1600458

Final report

Mar­cos, M.; Bian­co, L.; Ciril­li, F.; Rei­chel, T.; Bar­ac­chi­ni, G.; Ech­ter­hof, T.; Rekers­drees, T.; Mira­bi­le, D.; Gries­sa­cher, T.; Som­mer­au­er, H.: Biochar for a sus­tainable EAF steel pro­duc­tion (GREENEAF2), EUR29517, Publi­ca­ti­ons Office of the Euro­pean Uni­on, (2019), Luxembourg

Logo ECThis rese­arch recei­ved fun­ding from the Euro­pean Community’s Rese­arch Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) under grant agree­ment n° RFSP-CT-2014–00003.